Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...

And not funny-ha-ha, either.

Mary Harron has only made three feature films, but I think it’s safe to say she’s the real deal, an artist with a unique voice who seems to be building a substantial body of work, slowly but surely. Her first film, I SHOT ANDY WARHOL, was a great showcase for Lili Taylor, a great ‘60s film, and it also seemed like a savvy comment on the ripples that we still feel now caused by Warhol’s prescient observation about everyone’s fifteen minutes of fame. AMERICAN PSYCHO was a film that managed to take an impossible-to-adapt book and turn it into something that made the same cogent points about ‘80s excess and corporate greed without wallowing in the creepier corners of the novel.

Now she takes on another decade and another huge theme, and does it by focusing on one of the most potent American sexual icons of the ‘50s. Telling the personal story of Bettie Page allows Harron and her screenwriter, Guinevere Turner, to comment on the strange mix of repression and freedom that defined sexuality in that era. Bettie, played with glorious abandon by Gretchen Mol, starts out as a good girl, on track to become the valedictorian of her high school. When she falls just a touch short, things start to suddenly not add up to what Bettie had planned for her life. She suffers through one rotten marriage, then takes off in pursuit of a new goal, determined to act. She’s so innocent, so open in the way she approaches people that it’s inevitable she gets hurt, more than once. And still... there’s something sunny about her. Bettie never seems to give in to that thing that changes so many people in LA, that turns them bitter. And it’s not an act... it’s just something about her essential nature. When she stumbles into photography modeling one day on the beach (literally), it’s like Arthur pulling the sword from the stone. There’s something so natural about the way she simply embraces this gift she has. And it’s funny... you write that, and there’s the temptation to be glib about it or to snicker. After all, she was just a model.

Sure, she started out doing bathing suit shots. And she only gradually worked her way up to a few innocent nudes for a private photography club. And when she met Irving Klaw (Chris Bauer) and his sister Paula (Lili Taylor), she didn’t see how it was any different. She just had more elaborate costumes to wear. And for the most part, the work she did was elaborate and theatrical and all about fantasy. She isn’t a significant player in American history or anything. But she’s fascinating in the way the best personal stories are... because of the way her spirit rebounds from situation to situation... and because of the sheer joy she took from her life. It’s hard when you live in LA or New York and you’re struggling at what you do. It’s hard to live close to it, but to not be a part of it. It makes people crazy. It makes them desperate. It can crush them with loneliness. But not Bettie Page. And that’s what Gretchen Mol plays so beautifully. That’s what makes the film really work.

Technically, it’s a blast. The use of color versus black-and-white is very carefully considered, and it works for the film dramatically. Harron doesn’t make aesthetic choices with an arbitrary eye. Her sense of period detail is a lot of fun without turning into a sitcom. Mott Hupfrel, the film’s cinematographer, is a relative newcomer, having only worked on much smaller films like THE AMERICAN ASTRONAUT or the controversial documentary FRAT HOUSE. His work here is playful and ballsy, and it pays off. You can tell that this is a modestly budgeted film, but it’s not “cheap” by any means. Harron’s got a lot of control, and she’s presenting a very specific version of a cotton-candy-idealized-1950s. Gideon Ponte, her production designer, has a pretty good-looking resume so far (SERIES 7, Almereyda’s HAMLET, BUFFALO ’66, and, of course, AMERICAN PSYCHO), and I’m dying to see the world he’s designed in NACHO LIBRE.

I’m just starting to go back to the theater after a month or two of hibernation, and this was a great way to get back into the habit. I went in with fairly modest expectations, and I was struck by just how sharp and complete the film was. I think there’s something cute about the reports that the real Bettie Page doesn’t like the word “notorious” in the title. Her utter lack of appreciation for the irony is in keeping with the clear-eyed, open-hearted approach Mol takes to the role.

This week, I’m seeing UNITED 93, ABOMINABLE, A PRAIRIE HOME COMPANION and something... else... something really groovy... so I’ll be back with looks at those this week, as well as a bit about GRINDHOUSE very soon. Until then...